This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dollar General for IZEA Worldwide. All opinions are 100% mine. Here’s a fast, easy way of organizing spice cupboards and spice cabinets in your kitchen thanks to products from Dollar General!
We’ve lived in several apartments in our 10 years of marriage, and there is always something the same about each and every one:
Our spices are always a disorganized mess.
Okay, maybe that’s not totally true.
When we got married, someone gifted us one of those nifty spice racks which was pretty cool, though it took up quite a bit of our limited small apartment counter space. But eventually those spices went bad, and jars of spices we bought from the stores didn’t quite fit in it the same way or look as nice, so we eventually pitched the spice rack (sorry to whoever gave us the nice wood spinning spice rack).
After that, it was a bit of mayhem in the spice cabinet. I suppose we were a bit of a mess with knowing what to do with most of the spices too as neither of us was cooking a ton, let alone getting all fancy with spices in the early years of our marriage.
However, my husband in the last 6 months or so has become sort of an amateur home chef, loving to experiment and try out fancy recipes (most of which he doesn’t eat ironically as he is now a vegetarian and also avoids most dairy products). I love this new change as now I’m eating foods I, myself, have never eaten either!
Thank you amazing cooking shows on Youtube for his inspiration! (Well, that and his love of his family and food.)
I so know I am not alone in my need of figuring out how to organize spices in a cabinet! Because simply putting them in neat little rows doesn’t last: that is not how to keep spices organized! You need a real system, a real solution for reading and finding all the different spices and seasonings in your cupboard in a quick and easy way.
I’m grateful I was able to find one thanks to some organization finds at Dollar General and their new DG GO! App.
Organizing Spice Cupboard
There are several popular ways of organizing spices, and each and every way will have its advantages and disadvantages.
Some popular ways of organizing spices in a cabinet are:
- Lazy Susan
- Spinning spice rack (like the wood one we were gifted)
- Uniform jars or tins (which seems like way too much work to me with all the labeling and repackaging)
- Back of cabinet door spice rack with hooks/hangers
- Put them in a spice drawer organizer instead
- Magnetic strips and hanging uniform, labeled metal tins from it
- Pull-down Spice Rack
- Spice Pull-out Cabinet
- Leveling it up with additional shelves in your cabinet
You will have to determine what method works best for your aesthetic preferences, your kitchen cabinets and kitchen drawer space, and make sense with your lifestyle and practicality.
If you don’t care about “ugly” mismatched spices, and don’t want to take the time to fill your own special jars with spices already in a jar from the store, than don’t choose one of the methods that depends on matching spice jars.
I am one who doesn’t mind mismatched jars and don’t want to take the time to refill jars. I got better things to do! Plus, you lose spices when transferring and those pretty little jars can add up in cost pretty quickly.
I hope you’re a bit like me and want the easy and affordable solution here, right?
Here’s what I found that worked fairly well.
How to Organize Your Spice Cabinet
Every kitchen cupboard and kitchen cabinet is different, just like some spices are in big bottles, or glass bottles, or mini bottles. Just roll with it and try to find whatever is going to work in your space.
I’m going with the easiest way possible to organize your spice cabinet – a 3-step pantry organizer.
I picked up some very simple, yet nice non-slip pantry organizers from Dollar General for just $4 each.
While I was picking them up, I also went around the store checking out what other dollar store organization stuff they had, and I was happy with all the different items!
I ended up picking up other organizers for drawers and other areas around the house. I was pretty happy with the amazing selection of Dollar General organizers!
As I shopped, I used the new Dollar General DG GO! App, scanning items as I shopped.
The app is pretty sweet because it tells you the price of the item, if there are any deals or offers available for your item, applies any digital coupons you’ve added, and tracks your running total.
I also liked that checking out with the app meant I could save an extra 10% on my order! Yeah, buddy!
When you are ready to checkout, you check out on the app with your secured credit card info, and then scan a QR code that you scan at the DG Go! kiosk right by the checkout.
For whatever reason, I couldn’t actually check out with it in the store, though there could be several reasons for that.
To use the DG GO! App you need to:
- Download the DG GO! app through the Google Play Store or App Store
- Have an iOS 10 and above or Android 5.1 and above phone
- Add your credit card or debit card information
- Be in one of the 258 stores across the country that have it
- Have Bluetooth, location, and camera services enabled
- Have access to the internet either through the store’s WiFi or your data plan
I wonder if I didn’t have my Bluetooth on or something. It just meant I had to check out with the cashier, who told me he didn’t know what happened with my phone and that he loves using it, and uses it all the time, and that other people have been too.
Organizing Spices in a Cabinet
When it comes to organizing spice cupboards, first remove everything from your spice cupboard and wipe down the shelves.
Next, you need to go through what you actually have.
I may have just bought more spices a month ago for Thanksgiving because I didn’t realize we had that spice already (and of course it’s because we rarely use it).
If anything is past its expiration date, just pitch it. The general thought is that longer than 8 months and they aren’t as fresh or good, but many are just fine up to 2 or 3 years. I had some that expired in 2012 (it’s the end of December 2018 right now) and even one that had a sell by date of February 2008! Eek!
I have noticed some old spices hanging out in our cupboards get really dry and clump together really bad, making it much harder to mix them into anything. And sometimes you add them into something, and they don’t pack much of a punch like you were expecting.
If you never liked that spice anyway, pitch it. Spices are always best fresh. Use your nose if you are unsure of its potency.
If you happen to have duplicates, and both are already open, try to combine them into one jar.
Put them alphabetical order (you can assign this task to your kids – works double for Language Arts for that day… said the homeschool mom).
Course, there are other ways you can organize spices in a cabinet, like:
- by cuisine (all Mexican spices grouped together, all Italian spices grouped together, all Indian spices grouped together, and so on)
- by the frequency of use (you always add cinnamon to your oatmeal and salt and pepper to… well… everything)
- by use (baking spices together, grilling spices together, and so on)
- by size (putting them in however they will fit!)
Do whatever makes sense to you.
The key is to organize them in a way that will encourage you to actually use them while cooking and baking and grilling!
And now you should be all set and done organizing your spice cupboard!
I was able to use two more of these three-tiered racks and organized the medicine in this cabinet too (which was also very needed!).
Pick up what you need from Dollar General, using the DG GO! App and get your spice organized (and perhaps other things in your home too).
For more organizing inspiration, check out the following posts:
- How to Organize a Chest Freezer
- 13 Clean Dirty Dishwasher Magnets
- 23 Places to Stockpile in an Apartment
- How to Organize a Small Homeschool Room (Especially if You Rent)
- How to Get Organized at Home with 5 Unique Organization Tips
- How to Keep Your House Clean (Even When You Have Kids)
- How to Digitize Photos, Journals, and More and Keep Them Safe in Disasters
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Jodi Durr says
Your cabinets look fabulous! I love those stacking shelves you got at Dollar General. So much easier to see things.